The Last Mountain
Long Time It was a warm day, animals of all type were out as they usually are in the Land of Mountains. The area was famous as on one side there were mountains that peaked above the clouds and on the other side there was dense forest. However in the middle was an open field that like the mountains and forest stretched for miles and miles. One could call this area damned because the only life around was that of animals and plant life. Finding actual civilization was impossible if you didn't know how to navigate and a person could be stuck walking in circles. You'd have to stumble upon a village to find civilization in this land however there was also the beauty aspect. A land that seemed to be catered for nothing but wildlife and nature. This land was the kind that artist would draw in a painting, a land that people dreamed of existing. After the events of that afternoon this land would never be the same. Almost randomly a pillar of light erupted in the middle of the field that came from the sky and seemed to stretch beyond. As randomly as it appeared it disappears in the same manner and left the ground singed. In the middle of it was a well dressed man with white long hair and bright purple eyes that in the night would illuminate as bright as the moon to anyone who looked him in the eyes. This interstellar traveler had two sheaths strapped to his side with what would be assumed to be swords. The animals in the area reacted by coming forth to confront this man and walk towards him. They formed a circle around the man and a lone deer walked up to the man to examine him. The man reached his hand out and cuffed it gently under the deer's jawline. The man then walked forward and a path was opened up by the animals to let him through. "Go........far away." The man said as the animals almost instantly fled in various directions away from him. On the side of the man's face veins protruded through his skin that started from his eyes and went throughout the side of his head. His eyes went from a sharp purple color to white as he activated the Byakugan and had view of the entire land from his position. "He's not here....." The man deactivated his Byakugan and resorted to other means in finding the man he was looking for. The ground beneath him began to shake and visible chakra leaked out of his body as he released a large amount of chakra so that the man he was looking for could sense him. "I know he'll find me now." The man said as he stood there and waited on his person of interest. ---- "Why is it so hot..." A middle-aged man pouted, dragging his feet across the lands as though he was exhausted. It was indeed a warm day in the shinobi world, and as for his last statement, the man was well aware of this. Yet, he still intended on dressing ridiculously in such heavy clothing. He wore two kimono. One which was all white long sleeved, and the other much more smaller, pink in color and rested over the larger one. In attempts to fighting off the heat he tipped his straw hat downwards over his face to block out the suns intense rays. In the distance he could see the peak of a mountain. Approaching it he could see a flock of birds flying away, then shortly after he felt a burst of chakra. Popping his head up to look down onto the open field below he found the source of the exertion. "Aye, it's you; Iori Hyūga." Thinking to himself, "Goddamnit...", as he leaped down from the mountain landing just a few meters from in front of Iori. "Did ya' really have to do that, Iori?" Seigetsu asked, bringing the backside of his hand to his face. "I'm tryna' keep it down if ya' know what I mean?" He whispered while leaning in. "Either way, what's the occasions for calling? I haven't seen you in YEARS. Just look at you. All, kimonoy and stuff." "Seigetsu Uchiha, I see you haven't changed one bit. But lets cut the formalities I called you here for one thing and that's a fight. I haven't been here for years because I've been lets say away. I found my father, rather my father found me and I've unlocked several new abilities. Before, you were leagues ahead of me in strength and now I think I've close that gap." Iori placed his hands on the hilt of his sword and drew it; the sound echoed through the area as he waved the sword downward causing a small gash on the ground. "Seeing as how I was part of your dojo for a while I think its more than appropriate that we start this fight wit our swords. Wouldn't you say so yourself?" Before speaking, Seigetsu gave off a slight chuckle. "I see. I guess last time we didn't finish our battle. You've been studying and instructing at the Sengoku Dojo for quite a while. I'm sure your swordsmanship has improved severely." Reaching underneath his kimono, he unsheathed his blade instantaneously. "Very well then, Iori-san." Quickly swiping his blade upwards a visible crescent appeared ripping through the earth's surface heading towards Iori at great speeds. "Let's see how much you've truly improved, Iori-san." Iori watched as Seigetsu he reached under his kimono and drew his sword. Iori's body began to tingle as he knew that he was about to clash with one of the strongest men he knew. He watched as Seigetsu gracefully swiped his sword and a crescent barreled towards him. Iori then made his move, almost mimicking the exact move of Seigetsu however sending a faster, stronger, and large crescent that darted towards Seigetsu after blasting through his. "Aye, that ain't fair!" Seigetsu shouted before swiftly releasing his blade, flipping his right hand so that his palm faced upwards catching it all over again. With the aid of his left hand, he pushed against the hilt of the blade causing it to colliding with the surface literally lifting the Earth at which they stood on, not only causing it to act as some sort of shield, but with the additional debris would interrupt Iori's vision if even for a moment. "He didn't have his Byakugan activated yet." Within the short moment, Seigetsu would disappear from where he formerly stood. "Trying to get me to activate my Byakugan are you?" Before the ground could lift anymore than it did, Iori struck the ground with his palm releasing a wave of air that not only stopped the ground from lifting but pushed it back down to its level and cleared the debris from the area. However Seigetsu was gone from his spot leaving Iori alone for a little bit. "You know how these things work Seigetsu, The moment you activate your base Sharingan or Mangekyo is when I'll activate my Byakugan. You've been through countless battles that have played out like this. If I activate it now then I don't think you'll like how this battle plays out." Iori said as he stayed on his toes, listening, looking around and waiting for Seigetsu to reappear. "Oh, he's under the impression that I want him to activate his Byakugan. How incorrect. With it, you'd be able to find me easily." Dropping from the skies above, Seigetsu was aimed with his head first on top of Iori. With his blade pointed downwards, and spinning in a full 360 multiple times, he aimed for the center of Iori's head. Hand he made contact, the Hyūga would find his skull drilled into, and shortly after his brained pierced and he'd lay left for dead. "Foolish methods, combat ways, Iori-san." He states, in response to Iori's words. "Holding back, because you want to wait for me will be your downfall, Iori." Iori listened and heard as Seigetsu was spinning 360 degrees through the air above him. If he had simply come straight down on top of him then the story of Iori would have reached its end because of exactly what Seigetsu said. However as Seigetsu spun 360 degrees the wind revolved in the same direction and cause it to made whistling sounds. "So that's where he is?" Iori would then start to spin as well however in the other direction. While doing this he also released blades of wind through his sword and the combination of his spinning and the blades of wind caused a cyclone to form that would cut anything close to it. By spinning in the opposite direction, Iori would stop Seigetsu from spinning because unlike Seigetsu Iori had a platform to continue to spin and could spin faster. Eventually Seigetsu would stop in mid air and be locked in place as Iori looked up and rose his arm and sword sending the bladed cyclone up towards Seigetsu."And maybe talking while in a battle against someone who can't see you would be beneficial to you. Because it can reveal your position easily even though I knew where you were already. "Damnit!" Just as Seigetsu attempted to alter his path it was already too late. The cyclonic force of wind pushed upwards throwing Seigetsu in the complete opposite direction. Quickly throwing his hand onto the ground regaining his balance, he brought his right hand over along with his blade stabbing it into the ground coming to a complete stop. His left sleeve was shredded up. "Tch, damnit. This was brand new." Straightening his stance, he glared over at Iori. "Aye, nice move. You're swordsmanship has gotten better indeed. Reaching underneath his kimono however on the left side, he drew another sword. "It's been a while since I've had to draw both of my swords. Please, make this last Iori-san." Iori smiled at Seigetsu's remark and noticed that Seigetsu reached to the left side of his kimono to grab his other sword. "Your second sword.....I see." Iori placed his sword in his left hand and on his right his entire arm was coated in chakra. "I once carried a Tantō but I don't any more because I rely on my hand to be my second sword. This battle will last Seigetsu, for how long I'm not sure. I do know however that after this battle this land will not be the same, neither will we." Iori coated his sword and chakra and swung it, releasing a barrage of needle-like chakra beams that engulfed the area in front of Seigetsu. Using his hand, Iori would send out a powerful blast of air that would push the chakra beams forward faster towards Seigetsu. Without word the Uchiha's right hand began to light up in a green aura. Shortly after the green aura traveled to his blade, and just as Iori thrusted, Seigetsu swung. Without a warning the near animals began to scurry away. It seemed as though they nothing something, that we, the readers did not. Birds that sat on the mountains together, flew in opposite directions looking for their own safety. Every man for themselves. The green energy collided with Iori's own technique forcing an explosion to occur between the two. In the process debris and everything flew into the atmosphere. The beams of chakra were small and needle like similar to Senbon. The green energy that leaked from Seigetsu's hand caught Iori's interest and being a sensor, Iori could tell exactly what kind of chakra was present. "Yin and Yang." Snapping his fingers, the chakra beams grew a little and once they hit the green energy they pushed the chakra out of the technique and pushed forth on towards Seigetsu. "I'm a Hyuuga remember." Iori said. While most Hyuga's would need their Byakugan activated, Iori didn't because he had trained with his Byakgan in such a way that he knew the ins and outs of chakra foundation. With his ability to use the gentle fist in his techniques he could affect the chakra of techniques. Launching his right blade into the sky, he quickly held his palm outwards at Iori firing off a black rod that ripped through the wind showing no signs of stopping. It's destination; anywhere on Iori's body. The force of Iori's chakra based technique was not enough to knock the rod off its path, and had he not done something quick he'd be in a rather tight situation. Grabbing his sword from midair, he quickly side stepped and dashed off towards the left of his opponent. Iori took a small side step to the right as the black rod got closer. In one graceful motion Iori swung his sword in a half circle from the ground and up wards to cut the black rod in half sending the two piece into the ground. Additionally, Iori projected his sword slash towards Seigetsu who had dashed of the the direction of the sword projection. Again, this was all in one graceful motion, showing off Iori's Kenjutsu prowess and how much it had grown in the short years the two last fought. By continuing to run right of Iori, Seigetsu was able to completely avoid the slash from Iori's blade. After all it was only a half spin covering a small area around himself. Placing his sword into his right hand so that it now held two, he swiped across the air and in the process released a large quantity of miniature thunderbolts across the terrain over Iori. Thei area at which they covered was quite large for an out-of-the-ass technique such as this, and only Seigetsu himself knew the limits of this technique. Iori sent a chakra infused crescent directly at the thunderbolts, specifically the middle of the thunderbolts and the area they covered. Since his chakra was basically an extension of himself, the chakra infused slash would discharge chakra which would be in essence Gentle Fist Art One Blow Body. This caused the rest of the thunderbolts to redirect further to the left and right of Iori keeping him from harms way. The crescent became smaller in compensation for the expulsion of chakra however maintained its path towards Seigetsu. Iori then stabbed his hand into the ground and caused the area around Seigetsu to violently shake to off balance the Uchiha and increase the chance for the crescent to hit although Iori knew that was not going to be enough. Watching as his lightning bolts were all deflected without much effort, he began to formulate a plan. "All of his techniques utilize chakra. He can manipulate only his chakra though. All of his moves follow a single flow, extremely linear. The crescent of chakra is coming straight for me, yet there's the possibility he can move it." Shortly after his thoughts were interrupted by the ground's mini-quake. Stabbing both of his blades into the ground, he knelt to the ground, and formed the snake hand seal. In the next moment a large tree sprouted from the ground next to him. A branch swiftly stretched itself underneath Seigetsu's feet and lifted him from the ground. "AAAAAAAAAARG" Seigetsu shouted unleashing a ferocious roar towards the crescent of chakra. At his current state, the roar would be more than enough to nullify such a technique. With his hands still holding the Snake steal, more and more branches began to grow from the ground and head towards the atmosphere around Iori. Creating a ring around his mouth with his finger he let out a blast of flames upwards. Soon after the flames came into contact with the tree branches hailing over Iori and would soon after latch onto them. Such intense heats burned the branches from their core and began to make them break apart, making multiple pieces of flaming logs. Each hailed over Iori, raining down continuously. Branches continued to be made and the flames continued to latch onto them. "Damnit. Guess were done with swords and moved up from that." Iori said as he leaped into the air while spinning and expelling chakra from all 361 tenketsu points. The rotation would cause a sphere of chakra to form around Iori. Iori reinforced the chakra sphere so that the flaming logs would bounce off the sphere. However there were large logs and Iori was in mid air, he didn't have a foundation to stand up on so as each log would hit Iori would be batted down back to the ground. Once he reached the ground, Iori had a foundation and could cause the logs to be batted away easily. "No you don't..." Seigetsu thought to himself as he held his hand outwards with his fingers spread apart, thin strings of chakra would travel towards Iori, and in short latch onto his chakra-like dome. Straighting his fingers up, he covered his index and middle finger up with his entire right hand, and a cloud of smoke was formed, revealing a clone of himself. After scratching on his eye patch, the clone took off creating a big gap between itself and Seigetsu. The original Uchiha held his hand out again, and the clone followed and they both began to create strings of chakra that would latch onto Iori's barrier. "I've fought many Hyūga within my lifespan, stopping something as mediocre as this is nothing." With time, Iori would come to a halt due to Seigetsu's last move, or so was his plan. Even then, Seigetsu hadn't been done just yet. Kneeling down again, he smashed his hand into the branch he stood on. Another cloud of smoke appeared, and from it emerge a large bird-like creature. It's white shined bright from the sun's rays. "Interesting...." Iori said to himself as his revolution came to a stop. Iori was a Hyūga indeed and attaching anything to a Hyūga that is still connected to the person is dangerous for said person as Hyūga's are masters at the expulsion of chakra. Iori would release his chakra to shoot up the chakra threads of Seigetsu and his clone. However Iori knew Seigetsu would figure out that he would shoot his chakra through the threads to attempt to use close off points. It was what happened in their last battle and it was defended against. The chakra Iori shot up through the thread however stopped suddenly and more chakra started to build up around the small point. In what seemed to be the blink of an eye, two large hands were formed; one pointing towards the clone and one towards the real Seigetsu. Iori who had his arms extended out in the corresponding directions mimicked the hand posture of the large hands formed signaling a connection. "Eight Trigrams Vacuum Wall Palm..." Iori said as the large hands formed out of chakra released a huge blast of chakra that would engulf the atmosphere around Seigetsu and his clone. The blast streaming towards them with harmful intentions. "This is our chance." A voice within Seigetsu's psyche states. "I know that." The Uchiha replied, quickly lifting his arm at the releasing of Iori's barrier discharging a thin line of lightning chakra swinigng it as though it were some sort of blade with extended reach. Seigetsu's summon circled around heading towards the clone, allowing the clone to jump on top of it, successfully avoiding the potential damage it could have taken. Ripping through the skies the Hayabusa made its way towards Seigetsu himself flapping it's wings canceling on the great force of wind from Iori's own technique allowing the Uchiha to continue on with his technique uninterrupted. Standing atop the the falcon, the clone reached into a pouch underneath it's kimono launching numerous shuriken and kunai towards where Iori once stood. Proceeding to weave hand seals at a blinding speed he shouted, "Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!" Iori's hand was coated in chakra as his palm met with the line of chakra and in one pulse of chakra broke a portion of the lightning blade. Continuing his momentum, Iori spun around and used his other palm to again release a large blast of chakra seemingly. However what came our of Iori's hand was a large amount of water that shot into the air from his hand and engulfed the flaming shuriken and kunai dousing them under gallons of water. The water continued forward towards Seigetsu's clone. Iori snapped his fingers and with his fist baled up, Iori punched in front of himself towards Seigetsu and caused a wave of vibrations to echo out towards him. Flashes of lightning were embedded in these waves of vibrations as well signaling that the wave was imbued with lightning. Instantly, Seigetsu vanished. A split second later, he appeared near the stream of water pushed out by Iori. Pushing against the atmosphere as though it were a platform, he dashed at Iori. Thrusting his hand forward, Seigetsu's palm became engulf by a sphere of chakra. For those wondering exactly how Seigetsu vanished, I'll explain how: Seigetsu's clone reach into the pouch of ninja tools underneath his kimono. Shortly after he pulled out a barrage of shuriken and launched them. The shuriken were marked by the seals of the thunder god. It would be difficult for Iori to dodge Seigetsu's current attack. As the situation stood, the Hyūga found himself in the midst of his own technique. Even for someone who has the flow of chakra down pack, Iori could find himself in bad situation. "Ooooooo," Seigetsu thought to himself referring to the tingling sensation he felt. Seigetsu's one visible eye began to transform, then soon found itself split into three tomoe signifying he'd activated his Sharingan.